Incubator and the cat - question

[deenamr]

I have a few suggestions for you on things that may bother the cat enough to keep it away. Cats hate the smell of vinegar. Put a dish of vinegar water on the incubator. Or put something on the incubator that doesn't cover the holes but breaks up the cats sleeping area - like a brick maybe. Cats don't like the feel of aluminum foril on their feet. Trying lining the area around the incubator with foil. Set mouse traps, very careful set them upside down around the incubator and when the cat touches them they will snap but as they are upside down they shouldn't catch the kitty and cause pain. You could buy an electric scat mat that you could line the area with - it gives electric shock when the pet walks on it. Most commonly used to train cats to stay off counters, dogs of furniture or pets away from the christmas tree. One of my favorites that I can't seem to find anymore is a motion activated airhorn. It was a small can that when motion activated by the cat getting on the counter would make a terrible airhorn noise. The one I remember was marketed specifically for cats but I can't find it anymore. Maybe they still have motion activated airhorns just not cat specific. Good luck with keeping the cat off of the bator. I have to keep mine in the spare room and keep the door shut.

Have a great day - Deena

 

[pbjmaker]

Thanks for the ideas Deena - will try the brick - should work. Duh - why didn't I think of that. She doesn't normally get on the counters - it's just the icubator that draws her up there. If that is no more fun then she should stay down.

 

[Ariel301]

As someone who majored in animal disease in college, and a long-time parrot and cat keeper, I am pretty sure cats don't carry any airborne bacteria that will harm eggs. Cats get a bad rap they don't deserve when it comes to being a disease carrier I am surprised to still hear myths from people about cats getting into baby cribs at night and killing/infecting a baby just by breathing on them! I was told when I got married that I needed to get rid of my cats immediately because I should not have cats and children together because cats apparently walk around breathing diseases into the air! The bacteria cats have that is harmful to birds is in their saliva. They would have to bite/lick/mouth a bird for it to be a problem. The claws can also carry germs like this, but again, the cat would have to use its claws on the bird. (This is why cat scratches and bites are more prone to infection than others, they introduce this bacteria into the wound) They do not shed it off their bodies or in their breath in any significant way. I have always kept cats and uncaged birds together, interacting, and never had an issue in many years of doing so--other than one bird who would attack cats! I have owned many pet birds and none were ever confined to a cage very often, the cats always had access to them, and they often lounged around on chairs and windowsills together. The bacteria in cat saliva is believed to be an aid to them in killing their prey, as it can knock down a small animal very quickly if the cat itself does not kill the animal. So it is recommended not to ever let them interact without proper supervision and training. Even the dreaded toxoplasmosis carried by cats is not that common, and you get it from poor litterbox sanitation (i.e. fecal-oral contact, by not washing your hands between cleaning the box and handling food/touching your mouth. Yuck!), generally only from cats under a year old, and only ones that have been outdoors killing and eating wild animals. Older cats, and cats that get regularly dewormed generally are not carrying it. I would keep the cat away from young birds, of course, because what cat can resist tasting or pawing a fuzzy little chick? But she is not going to make them sick through the walls of the incubator and the shell of the egg just by hanging out around them.

The bigger issue would be with the cat knocking the incubator over, blocking vents, unplugging it, messing with any control knobs/switches, getting it open and playing with the eggs, that sort of thing. You know how cats are lol...mine wants to help me when I turn the eggs, it looks like great fun to her to roll those neat toys around! So your birds are not going to catch any horrible disease from her, but she should stay off anyway.

More ways to keep the cat down: Double sided tape. Stick it to the area around the incubator, and the lid. Cats don't like stepping on the sticky surface at all. Also, a spray bottle full of water, and when you catch her up there, spray her with it, preferably in the face. If that doesn't bother her, add a bit of vinegar to the water and it will. Or, a can/bottle full of gravel or pennies, something noisy. When you catch her up there, toss it in her direction, and the racket will annoy her and eventually she'll leave the thing alone to avoid the noise. (that one works best for cats that are easily startled by loud noises, and not at all for some cats. Mine finds that method amusing and tries to get me to throw the can)

 

[lemurchaser]

My favorite new product to keep my cats off the counters:

Sssscat: http://www.multivet.net/en/products/ssscat/

It's a motion detector air sprayer. I have 3 of them, it works great. I even put one under my patio table to keep the chickens out from under there (they like to hang out there when it rains and make my patio really disgusting).

I would also say, your kitty sounds like she'd love a heated bed. Can you give her a heating pad in a bed, or buy a heated bed for her. She's seeking heat. Sometimes as they get older the heat really helps with arthritis, and they become very heat seeking. I just got my kitty one, he's 9 years old and has rheumatoid arthritis that is very painful. He loves his new bed.

 

[pbjmaker]

I think she is heat seeking - but not because of age - she is not even two yet. It is just miserably cold here. She is normally an indoor/outdoor cat but because of the cold has been inside for about 6 weeks.

I will look into the air srayer too. Although she doesn't really get on the counters. In fact her other favorite place to be is in the air intake ducts to the furnace (she found a way in the basement)

Maybe I can put one in those...

I can't find any oredering info on that site - where do you buy them from?

 

[Ban seabhag]

Quote:
Thank you for all that info. I knew some of it, and have always found the cat myths amusing, but this is really interesting stuff. Have always allowed my animals (and children) to "mingle". I would sure hate to think that was dangerous.

Knocking over the bator is what concerns me. It happen to my small one, when the big cat went somewhere he never goes. So much for keeping a cat where he belongs!

 

[duckluck]

There *are* a lot of them that are myths, but I would certainly err on the side of caution. What someone said above about pet birds is true, but you have to remember that your peeps are going to be a lot more fragile than my Amazon parrot, especially during their first few days of life. It's going to depend partially on your bator too...I would never allow the cat that I had into the room with the GQF I am running, because it would be all too easy for him to get a paw into the vent holes. Or open them all the way up and lose humidity. And with as hard as it is to keep a bator sanitized, why open up yet another vector by getting cat hair in there? It's pretty handy at pushing out the chick fuzz so I wouldn't bet it isn't sucking in some stuff too through some of the vent holes. You also said yours goes outside sometimes, so that is another can of worms. So many of us on here fight so many battles with incubating valuable eggs that it's safe to say that taking one more variable of something that could go wrong out of the equation would be a good move.

I liked the idea of the scat pad...that would have been valuable to use on this cat that I just got rid of! He was always somewhere he didn't belong! Though I don't know if even an electric shock would have worked on him.